Hudson's Bay Company sold to NRDC Equity

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Hudson's Bay Co. has been sold to a U.S. equity group in a move that will bring the upscale Lord & Taylor retailer to Canada.

NRDC Equity Partners of New York bought HBC on Wednesday and says the move allows it to open Lord & Taylor stores in Canada, which the equity company also owns.

Richard Baker, the new CEO of HBC told CTV News that while there are no plans for name changes to any of the Bay stores, some of the stores are too big and allow for multiple stores under the same roof.

"We have a lot of oversized Bay stores . . . there is an opportunity to shrink some of those Bay stores and perhaps, put Lord & Taylor stores adjunct to (those) Bay stores," he said.

"In the Canadian retail market there is a void between high-end retailers like Holt Renfrew and the Bay and we believe that Lord & Taylor could perhaps, fill that void."

The purchase of HRDC brings together HBC's Bay, Zellers, Home Outfitters with NRDC's Lord & Taylor group and the Fortunoff jewellery and home-d�cor chain.

The combined company will be known as the Hudson's Bay Trading Co and has 75,000 employees and annual sales totalling more than US$8 billion.